CTA: Dial down cell phone usage

October 06, 2009|By TRACY SWARTZ

The CTA would prefer you didn't use your unused minutes on its buses and trains.

The transit agency has started rolling out its "Don't Yell on Your Cell" ad campaign, according to a press release issued Friday. Riders are encouraged to set their phones to vibrate instead of a ring tone, to text instead of call or to lower their voice when on a phone call.

Posters in unused ad spaces on buses and trains are reminding riders of the CTA's etiquette proposal.

The ads come at a time when the CTA could get noisier. AT&T and T-Mobile customers will be able to use their cell phones and mobile devices in CTA subways by the end of this year, a CTA spokeswoman said. Cricket, Verizon and U.S. Cellular customers currently can use their service underground.

For Peter Treadway of East Lakeview, the CTA already is hard on the eardrums. Treadway, 27, recently wrote to "Going Public" to complain about a noisy ride on the No. 135 Clarendon/LaSalle Express.

"I want to take a minute to congratulate the young lady on the No. 135 who informed her friend via her iPhone that she recently received a promotion. That is great news, but unfortunately, everyone else on the No. 135 does not care," Treadway wrote. "We also don't care about the other loud conversations you have on average at least two days out of the week on the bus. Keep it quiet or don't answer the phone until you're off the bus, please."

Commendation Station

This feature typically is reserved for CTA employees who offer exceptional customer service, but I'm making a special exception for Sandra Peterson of Rogers Park.

Peterson, 59, called last week to tell me that a rider vomited on her as she rode the Red Line northbound Tuesday evening. A man threw up on her jeans and her leather jacket and didn't apologize or help clean her up, Peterson said.

Instead, three women came forward to offer her hand sanitizer, makeup wipes to clean her jacket and a disposable bag for her smelly clothes. Peterson said she would like commend those women for their help.

"They went out of their way. I thought that was very nice," Peterson said.